Meaning
Something that frees a person from an obligation, penalty or awkward situation without any consequences; an all-purpose exemption or immunity. Borrowed from the Monopoly card that releases a player from the Jail square without paying the fine, and nearly always used with a note of irony about escapes that other people would not enjoy. Usually ironic or critical, implying the escape is undeserved. Hyphenate as a modifier (a get-out-of-jail-free clause) and capitalize when referring to the literal Monopoly card. The precise first figurative use remains open; the earliest verified episodes are the 1967 literal-card story and the 2000s figurative citations. Regional use: From US English, via the American game; now used across the English-speaking countries.
Origin
Monopoly was marketed by Parker Brothers from 1935, and both its Chance and Community Chest decks carry a Get Out of Jail Free card, which frees a player from Jail without the fifty-dollar fine and may be held for later use (Wiktionary records the etymology from the board-game element). Its cultural grip shows early: in 1967 James Robert Ringrose, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, presented a literal Get Out of Jail Free card to the agents arresting him. The metaphor was fully established by the 2000s: Justice Scalia's opinion in Hudson v. Michigan (2006) warned that suppressing evidence would amount 'in many cases to a get-out-of-jail-free card', and the same year the New York Times reported on the get out of jail free cards given out by a New York police union - all documented, with the Ringrose episode and the Scalia quotation, in Wikipedia's Monopoly article. Wiktionary's citations run from Wally Lamb's 2008 novel to an Ontario ruling of 2020.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- get out of jail free pass
- get-out-of-jail card
Usage Examples
- Diplomatic immunity has become a get-out-of-jail-free card for reckless drivers.
- Executives treated the compliance seminar as a get-out-of-jail-free card, but the regulators disagreed.
- He kept the apology letter in his desk like a get-out-of-jail-free card for the next time he missed a deadline.